Online communities are a gamechanger for video game publishers. A thriving Discord server of superfans who are passionate about your game is much more than a nice-to-have - it's a key part of a marketing and revenue ecosystem that helps you smash your brand goals.

Smart marketers know an online Discord community creates a self-sustaining feedback loop of engagement, user-generated content and word-of-mouth promotion, driving a flywheel of tangible marketing and monetisation results. A key part of that process is understanding what's going on with your fans, because knowing how to measure community engagement is the first step towards optimising your community ROI with well-informed strategies.

In its 2024 gamer survey, management consultancy Bain advises gaming brands to “understand the customer” as one of its four key recommendations.

According to Bain, “Every group of gamers requires its own product and engagement strategy, and game companies should be conducting ongoing research and testing to refine their understanding." To understand fans and customers, gaming companies must first "determine the appropriate ways to reach them.”

A great way to reach this huge audience is through community. When connecting with fans in online communities, let's explore the key engagement metrics you need to follow, unpack how engagement drives value, and uncover the Discord analytics tools which help you prove the ROI of a thriving community.

The engagement metrics you need to know

Social media follower counts can be nice big numbers, but a Discord community provides you with much deeper analytics and insights about your most genuine fans. Here are just some of the key metrics you can understand within Discord:

Community participation rate (CPR)

CPR measures how engaged your community is, similar to engagement rate on social media. The industry standard is 10% of community members actively and regularly engaging with content.

Participation key metrics:

• Number of messages sent per user, per month
• Number of members participating in events or discussions
• Growth in the percentage of active users over time

Audience growth

The community should be constantly growing, attracting new fans who want to get more into the game than they can on social media. Employing proven growth strategies helps attract and retain members.

Growth key metrics:

• New members joining each month
• Retention rate of new members after their first month
• Referral or word-of-mouth growth (members inviting others)

Active participants

A successful community should have more than half of its members classified as "active users". They contribute regularly to discussions and events, moving from being passive lurkers and getting involved with the conversation.

Activity key metrics:

• Percentage of users who engage in the community at least once a week
• Users participating in at least one event or conversation per month

Returning users

From the moment they sign up, members should be excited to connect and incentivised to keep coming back.

Returning key metrics:

• Weekly active users (WAU)
• Recurrence rate (how often users return after their first visit)
• Bounce rate (how many users visit but do not return)

Relationships and trust

A happy and healthy community depends on its relationship between the games company and the fans, and among the fans as a group. Trust is crucial to building a thriving community, so it's vital to quantify this relationship.

Trust key metrics:

• Sentiment analysis of community discussions (positive vs. negative interactions)
• Long-term retention rates of highly active users
• Anecdotal evidence of strong connections (eg testimonials from members)

How engagement equals ROI

Engagement is crucial because it translates to results. Social media reaches a lot of people, but comes with the limits of appealing to a general audience or the headache of wading through trolls, spammers and people who are unlikely to engage with your brand anyway. A real community is different.

Anyone who joins a Discord community signals a deeper interest and readiness to engage, presenting you with an opportunity to promote and monetise your brand to a dedicated audience which you know is more passionate and receptive.

Superfans are a huge opportunity. Look at the music industry: Superfans number around 15% of the US population but spend 80 percent more on music than the average person, according to research company Luminate. According to a Spotify report, those superfans who make up the top 2% of an artist’s streams also contribute 52% of merch sales.

Driving engagement requires input and imagination from your team. But there are many simple yet effective engagement strategies that pay off massively, translating into key metrics like:

Marketing and promotion

Superfans love to talk about their passions and spread the word on other platforms. Social proof is key to impressing consumers - word of mouth is the primary driving force behind 20 to 50% of all purchasing decisions, according to McKinsey.

Publishers can also leverage the power of influencers and streamers who are members of the community or who collaborate with the brand with gameplay videos, reviews and events in the server that increase the game's visibility and attract new players.

Loyal player base

Active online communities keep players engaged with the game through discussions, community-generated content and social interaction. This can extend the lifecycle of games, keeping players interested via in-game events, competitions and group activities.

This is particularly useful for multiplayer, sandbox or MMORPG titles that can potentially run and run. Plus, a growing community shows publishers that there's scope to turn a successful game into long-running franchise, with community feedback keeping the buzz going between games and even helping shape sequels, spin-offs and expansions.

Real-time feedback and iteration

Communities provide invaluable feedback on gameplay mechanics, bugs and new features that players would love to see. Superfans love to feel like they're in a collaborative relationship with developers, and can be rewarded with opportunities for beta testing or early access that helps get the game in shape on its official launch.

Community-generated content (UGC)

When your game thrives on user-generated content (UGC), like mods, skins and custom maps, a community becomes a hub to encourage and reward players who share their own content.

Esports and player-driven ecosystems

An online community is essential for supporting competitive play and esports tournaments, boosting a game's visibility and longevity. Publishers can organize tournaments or support leagues run by players, offering rewards or even sponsoring competitions to keep players invested in your game.

Monetisation and revenue

When a community is based on genuine trust and conversation between the brand and members, monetisation opportunities can be introduced in organic ways that make fans feel like they're gaining value rather than just being advertised to.

Monetisation opportunities include early access or server-exclusive pre-sales, microtransactions, loot crates, season events, merch and DLC.

Revenue integrations also make it easy for superfans to show their support via Discord itself, bringing in revenue that can be both tracked and rewarded. For example, through our Spotify music streaming integration, artists and their teams can see 489m tracks streamed per year in communities managed by Levellr, then offer rewards that encourage fans to stream even more.

Tools for measuring success in your community

Discord is the perfect place to start a community, and you can take it to the next level by taking advantage of tools that bring even more options and insights. Like a great expansion pack, Levellr adds extra features such as an analytics dashboard that shows you granular insights into everything from where your fans are based to how they feel about your game.

Here are some of the features you can expect to see in your Leveller dashboard.

Server analytics engagement overview

Understand the mood of your fans with sentient analysis, which shows how members react to conversations. Being able to take the temperature of your player base is huge as you can specifically evaluate what your members are interested in and what they're excited about.

Audience oversight

See how your server is growing, as well as audience behaviour.

Community-generated content

Our CGC dashboard collates the community-generated content created and shared by your members, and crucially shows which pieces of content have sparked other fans to react. You can easily access the most popular UGC, then reach out to the creator for potential use in other social or marketing posts.

Sentiment analysis

Get a deeper feel for what your users like and dislike, even filtering by specific keywords to see which topics have fans buzzing (or not).

Monetisation and revenue

The e-commerce tab tracks sales and revenue going via Discord, such as integrations, ticket and merchandise sales.

Engagement measurement matters

Online communities are a priceless asset for video game publishers. An active community creates a feedback loop of engagement, content generation and promotion that deepens the emotional connection and turns fans into superfans.

Keeping fans engaged with your game and your studio is key to driving short-term and long-term success, which is why it's so important to understand your community.

Here at Levellr, we help clients like Fall Out Boy and Starbucks understand and engage with their superfans and loyal customers. To see how it works, check out our YouTube playlist of handy video guides or read more about how a Discord community can help you smash your brand goals, in gaming or any vertical.

Contact Levellr today to learn how you can benefit from a winning community.